Mike Nadel: A long time coming for Leman, Illini

A bowl game for Illinois? With a shrug and a confident smile, freshman Arrelious Benn said he expected nothing less. Winning, he said, was all he knew.

Mike Nadel

A bowl game for Illinois? With a shrug and a confident smile, freshman Arrelious Benn said he expected nothing less. Winning, he said, was all he knew.

Well, J Leman could tell Benn a few stories about losing.

The fifth-year senior linebacker has been around campus so long he's about to get his master's degree. Heck, he's been around so long, he probably owns squatter's rights on The Quad. So he could tell his young teammate about 11th-place finishes in the Big Ten, about 53-point defeats and about never having beaten Northwestern. That's right: 0-4 vs. Northwestern!

Leman also could tell Benn what it means to want something desperately, only to be left wanting -- over and over and over again.

For four-plus years, Leman kept telling himself to be patient because the Fighting Illini's time would come. The toughest part was believing his own words.

"To say I never had doubts would be a lie," Leman said. "I've been here for five years and I have eight wins. That's some pretty tough sledding."

Actually, eight was Illinois' victory total in his first four seasons. Leman and his fellow fifth-year seniors -- guys like Kevin Mitchell and DaJuan Warren and Martin O'Donnell and Chris Norwell -- have a good chance to match or even top that total in 2007.

With Saturday's 28-17 victory over Ball State, Illinois improved to 6-3 and became eligible to play in a postseason game. Yes, for the first time in six years, the Illini will be going bowling.

"For all of us -- especially those who came here five years ago -- to see the success we're having is really special," said Leman, one of the country's best linebackers and leaders.

"Watching this program turn around, helping it turn around, it's tough to express what that means. Seeing where we were and now where we are ... it didn't happen overnight, that's for sure. It was little by little. It hasn't been easy."

A loss would have been devastating to a program that had followed huge victories over Penn State and Wisconsin with bubble-bursting defeats at the hands of Iowa and Michigan.

And there were more than a few nervous folks at Memorial Stadium when Ball State drove inside the 5-yard line with a chance to take a fourth-quarter lead. But the defense stopped the Cardinals, and the offense then went 80 yards to score, the big play being Juice Williams' 56-yard pass to Benn.

One of the nation's top freshmen and one of many outstanding youngsters brought into the program by third-year coach Ron Zook, Benn always won in high school. He said he wouldn't have trekked from Washington, D.C., to Champaign if he didn't believe his winning ways would continue.

"I came here to help turn around this program, so to be bowl eligible in my first year feels real good," he said. "All of us freshmen came here to play in the big games. We came here with big goals. We knew what we were doing."

It's too early to tell how good Illinois will be under Zook. He keeps saying there is plenty of room for improvement, and he certainly is right. With Williams and 1,000-yard tailback Rashard Mendenhall, the Illini run the football better than most. But they're in trouble if they have to pass and their defense is a work in progress. For all of his recruiting acumen, Zook also has much to prove as a college coach.

"You're judged on wins and losses -- period -- and close isn't good enough," Leman said. "So after those years of struggles, it feels great knowing we're finally good enough to win our share of games.

"Coach Zook came in with great energy and vision. He kept bringing in talented players and us older guys kept getting better. And now, we have a great mix of vets and fresh talent. Our success was going to be determined by how well we meshed together, and we've meshed real well.

"We're a hybrid, baby! It's a new day for Illinois football!"

Mike Nadel (mikenadel@sbcglobal.net) is the Chicago sports columnist for GateHouse News Service. Read his blog, The Baldest Truth, at www.thebaldesttruth.com.